Today’s giveaway from The Waldorf Connection is perfect for those planning their next year of homeschooling or for readers who are considering homeschooling but not sure where to start.

Do you ever wonder how you can pull your lessons together?

Do you ever second guess yourself and wonder if you’re doing this homeschooling thing the “right” way?

Are you overwhelmed by the amount of curriculum available and have no idea where to begin?

Once upon a time Donna Lashton, a mother of twin girls, felt that way as well. So she decided to create a venue where those interested in homeschooling could ask questions, get answers, and put the pieces together in a specific way that would work for their unique family.

The result is The Waldorf Connection, an online seminar expo series containing over 15 hours of lectures and valuable content.

I had the opportunity to listen in on a couple of the expo sessions and they were fabulous. Donna’s lineup features award-winning, prominent authors, teachers, and child-development experts. I found myself discussing inspiring points with my husband long after finishing the seminar.

Today’s prize for one winner includes over 15 hours of MP3 download (the entire expo!) from The Waldorf Connection–as well as the PDF transcripts so you can make your own notes and highlight ideas. Also included are three bonus calls in which homeschooling moms reveal their secrets to successful planning.

Many of the sessions are applicable to any homeschooler, whether or not you follow the Waldorf tradition exclusively. If you find it challenging to get away for a real-life homeschooling convention, The Waldorf Connection is the perfect solution to get inspired and fueled for a new homeschooling year!

Here’s a list of the seminar titles (more information can be found here):

What Grade Should my Child be in?

Simplicity Parenting

Steiner’s 12 Senses

Skills Parents Can Use to Invite Cooperation

Handwork: Planning Your Year

Waldorf Music- Teaching a Blowing Instrument

From School to Homeschool

Creating Rhythm to your Day

Grade Overviews: 1st-3rd, 4th-5th, 6th-8th

Homeschooling with Multiple Children

Pentatonic Music & Foreign Language Program

Steiner’s Milestones- Reasons Behind the Curriculum

Homeschool Planning in a Nutshell

How to Win

Everyone has three chances to win. Choose one or all three!

1. Comment on this post, and answer this question:How do you approach planning for a new year of homeschooling?

2. Follow @simpleschool and @donnalashton on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway. Be sure to come back and leave a separate comment with the link to your tweet.

Comments

This sounds great!
This being our first year homeschooling, we’re starting with a Pre-K Core from Sonlight. I tried not to overthink it, but I can definitely see this info being incredibly helpful.
.-= Kim’s last blog: 211- Sad Day =-.

we haven’t decided on whether or not to homeschool – i would love to but i’m not sure i’m capable of it! this would be a great resource if we went that way though!
.-= katie anaya’s last blog: a trek through the snow =-.

My son’s not yet school-age, but we are starting some preschool activities this year. I’m in the midst of learning about planning school at the moment, so I think this would really be a great resource.

This will be our first official year of homeschooling so I am new at the planning. We chose Sonlight so a good bit of the planning is done for me. Sounds like the Waldorf Collection would be a great resource for future planning and getting through any hurdles we might face this first year.

Planning the year of school is a big process for me, with ages 5,10,and 15. I have a planner that is gradually being filled in with what we plan to do each month, including theme units, chapters in physics to be accomplished, art projects,books to read, special days, etc. Once that’s all done, I’ll move into a more detailed look at each month and begin gathering supplies we’ll need. It’s a ton of work, but I love it. I love the excitement at what a new year brings.
.-= daffodil lane’s last blog: Fifteen =-.

Right now, my planning for the upcoming year is very loose. My little guy is only 2 1/2 so everything we do right now is child-led and very “unschool-ish”. That being said, every so often I look at a list of “what your child should know” and make notes of things I want to incorporate a little more purposefully into our days. So far, so good. He still loves learning/playing with me and I’m happy with what he’s retaining

Lately we’ve been approaching this year’s homeschool planning with late nights and lots of discussion. Our three year old will start learning to read with “The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.”
.-= Evan Brammer | The Holy Life’s last blog: The Reason for the Holy Life =-.

My plan starts with a yearly calendar into which I plug all the holidays, festivals, and seasonal activities for the school year. Then I look at my teaching goals for the year and plug in blocks (of lang. arts, soc. studies, nature study, etc) to the calendar as well. Then I round it out with handwork projects plugged in throughout the year.

We are still considering homeschooling. I am not yet confident I can manage. I am doing much research these days. This giveaway would be a great compliment to my research. Specifically, Creating Rhythm to your Day and Homeschool Planning in a Nutshell. I am not yet feeling the planning can fit in a “nutshell” ;o)!

Right now I am looking through curriculum and trying to come up with a rough idea of what the year will look like and what we will cover, but I know we will end up changing it a lot as we go through the year, depending on where interests take us.
.-= Kami’s last blog: 4th of July pipe cleaner leis =-.

This is my first official year of homeschooling, but I have taught in a homeschool program for 3 years. I like to have a rough idea of our entire year from the start, because I feel like it keeps me focused! But I try to be flexible within the plan, since you never know what a year will bring. This seminar sounds fantastic!
.-= Paula@Motherhood Outloud’s last blog: What I Learned from Swimming Lessons =-.

I am just considering homeschooling my daughter. She just turned 3, and I am (for the first time) maybe able to stay home with her after the arrival of our second child early next year. So I don’t have a planning strategy, but I would like to get one.
.-= Tara @ Feels Like Home’s last blog: Grace and Her Babies =-.

I still have just a young son, a bit too young to begin homeschooling. But I am such a planner that i feel trapped, like i couldnt ever possibly do this and be solely responsible for his whole education. So this would be a wonderful way to plan and ease my fears.

This upcoming year will be our first year of homeschool and I have collected our resources and decided on the curriculum (classical), made a schedule and have an outline of lessons for the term. We’ll see how it goes from there!